Monday, December 20, 2010

Houston, we have sleeves

I don't usually knit on a deadline. I think it sucks the joy out of knitting, and I've said so. Over and over and over again, ad nauseum. 

Yesterday I decided that it was time to sit down and get some knitting done. I sat and knitted for the better part of the afternoon and evening- stopping periodically to hydrate, nourish, and stretch (of course). It. Was. Heaven.

(The only thing that could have made it better would have been if I'd had a good-looking man feeding me chocolate and massaging my feet while I did it. But he was out seeing TRON.)

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This is the body of Cece, in all her Spinach-y glory

Not only did I get 1 1/2 sleeves done on my Beloved Cece, I also got halfway through Season 2 of Dr. Who (with David Tennant). In less than six hours.

I can't believe this sweater has taken me so long. I know it's because it has been neglected in favor of Meghan's Twist Cardigan, which is sitting politely in it's bag waiting for the sleeves to be set in before I can knit the collar and buttonbands. Both the Twist and Meghan are okay with the waiting, though for you naysayers (coughTikacough) I am happy to tell you that Meghan will be getting her half of the sweater swap.

The thing about Cece is that her construction is a lot like Ariann, which I finished knitting last year before Rhinebeck. (Now that I'm thinking about it, that makes my Rhinebeck 2009 sweater count to be two sweaters. Not bad!)

The major difference is that Cece is knit out of sport weight yarn and Ariann is knit out of worsted. They're both beautiful, but Cece is taking me just *this* much longer. (She's still worth it, have no doubt.) I've even picked a beautiful button to be The One:

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Doesn't it look like a minimalist artichoke?

I'm powering through the sleeves to get to my favorite part - joining them and knitting the yoke all in one piece. Despite the fact that it's (approximately) one MILLION BILLION stitches per row, there's something incredibly satisfying about seeing something that looks like a finished sweater on your needles.

I think that's when I'll go to a coffee shop to work on it, with a pocket full of business cards for my favorite LYS. There's nothing like seeing a nearly finished project to inspire people to start knitting before the holidays.

Enabler, out.

4 comments:

  1. Cece is a happy enough sweater that I need to make here a big sister with full length sleeves and maybe a couple of inches in the body - thank you for having her as a KAL!

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  2. I never said nay! You're pinning all your FEARS about getting stuff done on ME! I admit, they look better with my skin tone than with yours, though. Carry on.

    P.S. - I have dibs on David Tennant. And we should do a sweater swap - maybe it would encourage me to knit a damn sweater...

    P.P.S. - I miss you and our enabler-y ways, so here's a link: http://www.discountyarnsale.com/default.cfm

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  3. Sarah and Erin are so fixated on Dr. Who that it's been dubbed "The Show That Must Not Be Named."

    For some reason I adore reading SciFi, but don't care to watch it. My bad!

    However on the Dr. Who front, Erin has knit a Dr. Who scarf- in unauthentic colors, but are ones that are glorious on her. She's currently knitting her second Dalek. Her first was utterly adorable.

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